Night Howlers
by MaximillanVoss
Summary: This story is my own interpretation on what could have happened to our two favorite Zootopia characters Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps had things not gone their way in the Museum of Natural History. In this scenario the Night Howler serum was never replaced by blueberries. *This is my first attempt at writing a story so I am open to any constructive criticism. Rated M for gore.*


Inside the Zootopia Natural History Museum Judy Hopps and her close friend Nick Wilde were on their way to the ZPD with critical evidence on the Nighthowler case. Just as they were about to reach the glass doors of the exit a familiar voice called out.

"Judy? Judy!"

"Mayor Bellwether?" Judy exclaimed. "We found out what's happening, someone is darting predators with a serum, _that's_ what's making them go savage."

"I am so proud of you Judy, you did just a super job." Bellwether said.

"Thank you ma'am" Judy said.

A silence descended on the conversation and a look of trepidation appeared on Judy's face.

"How did you know where to find us?" she asked.

"I'll go ahead and I'll take that case now" Bellwether said nervously.

"You know what?" Judy said taking a step back. "I think Nick and I will just take this to the ZPD."

As they turned to leave they were horrified to find that there was a ram blocking the exit.

" _Run"_ Judy and Nick exclaimed as they both began to run.

"Get them." Bellwether commanded.

The group took a detour into another section of the museum. But in their flight Judy did not see an exposed tusk laying in their path. Judy's leg clipped the exposed tip of the large tusk and she tripped. Crying out and clutching her injured leg Nick called out to her.

" _Carrots!"_

Nick ran back to Judy and helped her up.

"I've gotcha, come on" he said.

Nick helped Judy over to a pillar to hide from the mayor and her goons. That's when they heard said mayor call out to them.

"Come on out Judy."

Judy shoved the case into Nick's chest whispering.

"Take the case, get it to Bogo."

"I'm not going to leave you behind, that's not happening." Nick whispered.

" _I can't walk"_ Judy emphasized

Nick grasped for Judy's shoulders and looked into her eyes with a stern expression on his face.

" _I am not going to abandon you here."_

Momentarily shocked by the emotion in Nick's voice Judy could only nod. While this was happening Bellwether had been monologuing about how her view of what Zootopia could be, where predators were oppressed by the majority of the prey population in the city. Just as she was about to finish Nick and Judy had placed a decoy to lure Bellwether's goons away from where they were making their escape. It was going well until a rolling pipe gave them away to early.

"Over there!" Bellwether shouted, pointing towards them.

The rams immediately began chasing down Nick and Judy. They made it back to the main sector of the museum and were close to the glass exit doors. A valiant effort was put forth from the two but Judy's injured leg was slowing them down too much. One of the rams had managed to get beside them and he smashed into them and sent them flying into a pit. Worst of all however was that the case containing the Nighthowler serum was knocked out of Nick's hands where they couldn't retrieve it.

Bellwether began to chuckle with a smug expression on her face, looking down on the two of them.

"Well you should have just stayed on the carrot farm huh. Thats too bad, I really did like you."

Judy called up to Bellwether, anger and betrayal in her voice.

"What are you gonna do? Kill me?"

Bellwether laughed and replied as if this was the most simple thing in the world.

"No, no of course not."

A malevolent grin appeared on Bellwether's face.

" _He is"_

Bellwether pulled out the dart gun and shot Nick in the neck, sending him to the ground.

" _NO!"_ Judy cried out, rushing to Nick's side.

Bellwether made a call to the ZPD.

"Yes? Police! There's a savage fox in the Natural History Museum, officer Hopps is down, please hurry."

Nick's heart rate was starting to rise rapidly and breathing was starting to become difficult. Judy attempted to comfort him.

" _No, Nick please don't do this, you have to fight it."_

"Oh but he can't help it, can he? Since preds are biologically predisposed to be savages."

It was becoming much harder for Nick to remain lucid now. His vision became completely blurred and red dots were appearing and disappearing. Nick's body started releasing adrenaline into his bloodstream. Nick looked over at Judy and she could see that the capillaries in his eyes were now visible as red lines in the corners of his eyes. Something clicked in Judy's brain and her hair began to stand on end. This look that Nick was giving her now stirred a primal fear in her.

Nick shut his eyes and dragged his claws along the rock he was laying on. He began barring his fangs and a bone chilling growl erupted from his gnashed teeth. When he opened his eyes again Judy could see his pupils quiver and morph into slits. The last thing Nick could feel was a swirling maelstrom of unbridled _rage_ forming inside his head. Nick looked up at Judy growling all the while. If the look he had before was scary, those eyes he had now made him look downright terrifying to Judy.

The fox began crawling towards Judy. Judy's brain screamed at her to run, she turned around and ran as fast as her injured leg would allow her. The fox interpreting Judy as an injured prey animal began to chase after her. Judy ducked below a stuffed doe prop and threw it at the fox. The fox's dug its teeth and claws into this doe almost immediately. It was torn to shreds and the fox spat out the stuffing in its mouth.

"Gosh, think of the headlines, hero cop killed by savage fox." Bellwether said.

"So that's it, prey fears predator and you stay in power?" Judy retorted.

"Yeah pretty much." Bellwether said nonchalantly.

"It won't work!" Judy yelled.

"Fear _always_ works, and I will dart every predator in Zootopia to keep it that way." Bellwether countered.

Judy's attention was torn back in front of her as she heard a growl that was damn near in her face. Judy could see Nick's face sliding through the tall grass that was shielding her. Judy looked into Nick's predatory eyes and could see no sign of her friend in them. Nick was baring his fangs as he got closer and closer to Judy.

" _Oh Nick"_ Judy said.

Nick was right up on her now and Judy sensed that grievous bodily harm was imminent.

" _Please… no."_ Judy said curling up into a ball, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes.

Judy wanted to close her eyes but she couldn't look away from Nick.

"Bye bye bunny" Bellwether said victoriously.

Just then Judy saw Nick's muscles coiling up and preparing to lunge. Judy couldn't bare to watch anymore. She closed her eyes tightly and thought

' _I didn't think it would end like this.'_

Nick could see his prey curled up into a ball. There was nowhere for his prey to run and his mouth began watering in anticipation of what was to happen next.

" _Bye Bye Bunny"_

What sliver of consciousness that was left inside Nick hesitated for just a moment. The sight of his closest friend curled up and in tears, and the voice of Mayor Bellwether stirred something deep inside him. The briefest of moments was all Nick needed to act. Deep down Nick knew there was no controlling himself in this primal state. Without the coherency to form intelligent thoughts Nick used emotion to direct his will instead.

 **Anger.**

Overwhelming anger at the one mammal responsible for all of this.

 _Bellwether._

Nick coiled his muscles and launched himself as hard as he could straight up unleashing a vicious growl as he went. Nick reached out and was able to grab onto the edge of the pit with one of his paws. Bellwether and the rams were momentarily surprised until they shook themselves into action. One of the rams stomped on Nick's paw, Nick cried out but instead of letting go he grabbed onto the rams leg and pulled with all his might. The ram was yanked into the pit and Nick quickly used his good paw to climb up into the museum.

"Get him!" Bellwether cried out shock and a bit of fear in her voice now.

But it was already too late, nothing was going to stop this feral fox now. The two remaining rams charged the fox from two directions. Nick lept away and the rams collided with each other. Not wasting any time Nick charged one of the rams and drop kicked him in the chest. Another one of the rams fell into the pit. The last one attempted to kick Nick back into the hole while he was down. The ram almost succeeded in flinging Nick back into the hole but the fox had latched onto the rams leg and refused to let go. The ram brought one of his hooves back and drove it forward towards Nick's face. It collided but Nick had latched onto that as well. Barely hanging on Nick began clawing himself up the rams arm and onto his shoulders. The ram panicked and fell backwards attempting to dislodge the fox by slamming it into the ground using his weight. The impact knocked the wind out of the fox but Nick managed to recover fast enough to climb on top of the ram.

Nick couldn't stop himself now, the fighting had driven his consciousness back and now all that was in control was his primal instincts.

' _ **Kill'**_

That's when the screaming started. Judy was still in a state of shock after the fox had leapt straight out of the pit she was in. She could see and hear bits of the scuffle that had taken place immediately prior to that. It hadn't taken long before two of the rams had been thrown into the pit with her. There was nothing they could do now but listen to what was going on above them. When the only ram left outside the pit started screaming followed by vicious snarling it didn't take an overactive imagination to figure out what was going on.

Nick was raking his claws across the rams face. The ram attempted to defend himself but Nick was in the position of power. The ram had alternated between striking Nick and defending his face but it was off no use. Nick had had enough and went for the rams throat. He bit down hard and with a snarl shook his head back and forth until a sizable chunk of the rams neck was ripped off. A sickening choking wheeze was then heard by all the mammals in the museum. Most horrifying of all however was when Nick looked up and swallowed whole the chunk he had ripped from the rams neck. Bellwether had already started running at this point but the noise alerted the fox of her escape. Immediately Nick ran after her quickly gaining on the sheep until he leapt at her.

"No!" she screamed as she was tackled just feet from the exit.

Nick grabbed her and flung her away from the door. Bellwether landed closer to the pit. She tried to get up and run but the savage fox was far too fast for her.

"NO!" Bellwether screamed genuinely terrified now.

Bellwether was flipped over and looking up at the fox she could see that it's muzzle, chest and claws was stained with blood. Its shirt was shredded in places but worst of all its eyes. Bellwether could not see a shred of remorse or regret in the foxes insane eyes.

" _ **ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WANTED!?"**_ He gutturally roared.

Before Bellwether could even think of a reply in her head the fox was on her. Bellwethers screams echoed in the museum as Nicks teeth and claws ripped into her body. It wasn't long before a deathly silence replaced the screaming.

Judy was shaken to her core. What she had just heard was the single most terrifying event in her life. Soon the sirens of ZPD cruisers could be heard outside of the museum Officer Mchorn was the first person through the door closely followed by Chief Bogo himself. The two of them were horrified by what they saw. Standing over Bellwether in a pool of blood was Nick Wilde. As the fox turned around they could see that his irises were just slits and that his muzzle was covered in blood. Nick growled and began to approach the two officers.

The officers both pulled out their tranquilizers and immediately shot Nick, once in the chest another landing in his neck. Soon Nicks steps became unsteady and he collapsed.

Chief Bogo turned to Officer Mchorn and grimly ordered him.

"We need to secure the perimeter of the museum and check for survivors, I want to know what the hell happened here."

Judy could hear familiar voices and quickly realized that it was Chief Bogo and the others. She realized that the nightmare is over now, her vision blurred she slowly drifted out of consciousness.

To Be Continued?


End file.
